Tom Pelissero: It's Been A Week In The NFL

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Limitations apply. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Robert and I, after a series of discussions, have mutually agreed to part ways. This is the Rich Eisen Show. All right, Chris, what are you thinking today?

So many great memories. But look, I think we knew this was coming. I think it was one of those things I was saying it last year.

It was just time for something different. Today's guest, NFL Network insider Tom Pelissero, senior writer for Sports Illustrated, Chris Mannix, Packers running back Aaron Jones. And now it's Rich Eisen. That's right.

That's right. Welcome to this edition of the Rich Eisen Show. I am fired up because it's time for Super Wild Card Weekend. Actually, it's not actually time. Tomorrow's the day. I'd rather play them now. You know, I don't know if the weather's right in Kansas City or Buffalo.

The weather you'd probably want to play now. It's only going to get worse. 844-204, Rich.

The number to dial. So much to discuss on this program. It is ridiculous. The football world has exploded. And we've got Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated stepping in studio at hour number two to talk about the association and everything going on in that particular end of our sports world. We've got Aaron Jones calling in from the Green Bay Packers, going out the door. Last segment of this show. Stay tuned for that. He will hang up the phone and fly to Dallas.

I don't know if that's accurate, but that's what we're going to figuratively do. It's snowing in Green Bay right now. What the heck is going on?

Love it. He's calling in the show. Tommy, Tommy Curran's going to be joining us. He's zooming in. He's going to put his Duncan's down for long enough to hit that join the meeting button.

You don't ever put the Duncan. I know. I understand what I'm saying. Tom Pellicero is going to join us first up to say exactly what the hell is going on. That's how we're starting this show today.

And you at 844-204, Rich is the number to dial. Good to see you. That's right. The hell is going on.

Good to see you over there, Chris Brogman. Did this week really happen? Was I dreaming? Fever dream took place. No offense to you, Jason Feller, but this would have been perfect for Mike Del Tufo to be here to give us his weather report.

Thanks for having me on. You know what I mean? We had to get Mike to zoom in for the weather, right? No, we don't. If he doesn't want to be here, he doesn't want to be here. You know what I mean? Like, that's it. That's true. That's it.

That's true. Not to be that way, but hello, Jason Feller. Hey, how's it going? T.J.

Weather report. How are you doing over there, T.J.? You good? Ready for Dallas Cowboy playoff football Sunday? He's nervous. You want the truth?

Yeah, I do. I'm a wreck. I'm a wreck.

There is no nothing that can happen this weekend when I come in on Monday. It's going to surprise me. Dallas won by 20. Wow. Great.

Dallas lost by a field goal. I believe it. I've got my Jimmy Johnson, Mike Wervin, Troy and Emmett t-shirt on. I'm feeling lucky with this, but I'm a wreck, man.

I'm nervous as heck. Werv says it's the curse of Jimmy's been lifted. I hope he's right. That's how he feels.

Curse of Jimmy's been lifted. I think it might be a blowout, T.J. From your lips to the Lord's ears. That's what you're referring for him to be happy, right? Yes, very much so. You see, I'm like you.

He occasionally would like me to be happy. And I appreciate Chris Brockman removing me from the Western Pennsylvania griddle. I got aggregated this week. Oh, he did. Him saying that the Steelers were going to get... What's the word he used? Blasted. Blasted.

All right. What were you noted as in the tweet? Analyst. In my mind, better than actor. Actor and analyst. What a year for me.

What can't you do? What a year. So the Steeler fans are like that. Analyst from the Rich Eisen Show says our team's getting blasted.

And it's probably the same people saying Tomlin should be out of there. The bald host of that program should be out too. You guys are making this so I'm not gonna be able to go back home anytime soon, man. Thanks. So, hey everybody.

Hey. We already have a new coach hired. Although it's not yet official.

Not official. But that was the conversation last year when that interesting, because they very rarely put out a press release in New England to announce pretty much anything about what they're doing. But remember that there was a two, three line statement that Bill O'Brien was hired as the new offensive coordinator, which is wild, that somebody would be announced and then given a title for everyone to see and call. And Jerod Mayo wasn't taking interviews elsewhere. He was being retained on staff. And everybody took that to mean, well, Bill had to bring somebody on to be the new offensive coordinator that the Crafts wanted to have on there to straighten out a regressing Mac Jones after Joe Judge and Matt Patricia, who'd never really coordinated an offense and been in charge of a quarterback before, was in charge of Mac Jones's regression season. And Bill O'Brien came on and as we all know, Matt Jones fell off a cliff. And Bill O'Brien was in charge of the draft. Not to say that that's Bill O'Brien's fault, but he fell off a cliff and everybody thought Jerod Mayo was sticking around because he was told you're the next coach, which led everyone to believe in New England that when Belichick being on the hot seat, it was just Jerod Mayo's gig and waiting until Mike Vrabel became available. And sure enough, Tom Pelosaro, along with Ian Rappaport from my NFL media group and others reporting today, Jerod Mayo is going to be the next head coach of the New England Patriots. Bob Kraft, when he left the podium yesterday, said, we're going to move quickly.

It's pretty quick. And which means it may have been in his contract that this was happening because they didn't have to go through any other hiring processes. He's in his contract. You're the next coach. I saw him in Germany and he was strolling around and I didn't get the sense that he knew he was going to be the next coach of the New England Patriots for sure.

And if this has been the case, well, what an interesting dynamic because Bill must have known what was in that contract, right? That's why we're paging Tom Caron to the horn later on today. But this is a guy who was drafted by the Patriots, played only for the Patriots, joined the coaching staff for the Patriots, has been only on the coaching staff of the Patriots.

And now he's the one that is going to be putting on the headset after the hoodie, the guy after the guy. And your guess is as good as mine as to what the heck that's going to look like. And that's one of the fascinating aspects of everything going on in New England is what will the post Belichick Patriots look like? And I don't mean like wins losses. I'm talking about organizationally. There's been one way that it has been done for 24 years and it was Bill Belichick's way.

End of story. And as it progressed, it being, you know, all the winning and banner raising and duck boat parading and denting of Lombardi trophies with baseballs at Fenway Park. You know, all of that, it only got more of Belichick's way. You even heard Bob Kraft say at the podium yesterday, AKK saying, hey, listen, it wasn't even an option to tell Bill you're going to have less control over the roster and in the draft room and someone else will be picking the picks and you will be picking some picks and somebody else will be picking some picks. And that's just not the way that they have done business. And Bill had earned the right of having that control. He was saying that that just didn't sound workable, but you stay the coach and we'll get more of a collaborative effort on the roster building and roster control.

Wasn't an option for Kraft and I'm sure it wasn't for Belichick. So how will it look organizationally? How will it look just spirit-wise? You know, I have no idea how this is going to look. How's it going to look media-wise? You know, will the coach actually say if a player's injured or not?

Will there be fewer questionable players on the injury report? You know, I mean, right. Will more assistants talk? I'm wondering what the press conferences are going to sound like. You know what I mean?

Like, what will this entire building look like? Because the other way around, the other way around in anybody that's taken over from the Belichick system elsewhere has been quite, what's the word for it, I guess, sea change, awakening, however you want to put it. Everything you hear in Las Vegas, it's like Josh McDaniels came in and it was the Patriot way, the McDaniels way, soup to nuts. And it took some doing in the building for people to get used to it and understand it and maybe have their roles changed because their roles aren't as collaborative under that system. And it worked for Bill. God, did it work for Bill. And others, it doesn't. If Mayo is just like Bill, you know what?

Everyone understands it. That's just the way it is. If it's different, that might be kind of a sea change. Don't know. What is it going to look like and how does that affect wins and losses?

And what does it look like on the field? Bringing in a total like hot, young, new coordinator, maybe to bring in all of the new offensive concepts that I guess others didn't. I don't know. You're into that idea. I'd be in favor of that.

I can't wait to see how it all builds. And then of course, I can't wait to see where Bill goes next. My gosh, will that be something in terms of that organization having a sea change when he walks in the building and then fans just having a sea change, seeing him in another sideline, another uniform logo on his hoodie.

We're also using words like when. Maybe a team doesn't want Bill. I don't know. Maybe a team doesn't want any of these guys that are out there. Like Pete Carroll. Yeah, exactly. We're just assuming that they're going to get looks in interviews.

Maybe not. One last thing before we get to Posero here. As you know, I'm looking at every single coaching hire and fire through the lens of how does that affect Jim Harbaugh?

Honestly, everything. So if Rabel doesn't wind up in New England and he winds up in say the Chargers or Vegas, that's one fewer spot that Jim might leave for. Totally. So I'm like, where did coach Rod Mayo? You take that spot that I thought Rabel was going to wind up in.

Even though he was, it seems contractually obligated to it. And I don't know. Maybe we're one step closer to the maze and blue skinny M hat still being on Jim's head. Let's take a break. So much to talk to Tom Pelissero about.

Tommy P. Tommy P. Next up, Tommy P. Next on the RAS. Rich Eisen here. If you love football as much as we do here and want to be in the game every day, there's something that guys on my show have been enjoying. Prize picks daily fantasy sports. The number one daily fantasy sports app. Brockman. Tell everybody about prize picks and your strategy this season. Rich it's fun and easy. Pick two players or more based on their stats and place your entry.

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Visit prize picks.com for restrictions and details. Welcome to Talkville, the ultimate smallville rewatch podcast. Karen, what you got?

Hi guys, Karen from Australia with a quick question for season three talisman. That knife wound was so powerful. Tom, what was it like to do that scene with John as your director? It's great that I was with those people because when your eyes are closed and someone is supposed to going to stab you in the chest, you have to really trust that they're not going to hurt you.

So I was in good hands with John. Jump in now or catch up on any of the past seasons of Talkville on YouTube or wherever you listen. Back here on the Rich Eisen Show. What did you just see during the commercial break, Chris?

I saw a report this morning. Jalen Hurts hasn't thrown a pass this week. Well, neither is Baker Mayfield apparently either, right? Except he's nursing ribs and Hurts has got that middle finger thing going on.

By the way, Philadelphia has had a middle finger thing going on for decades. You know, I should be careful. I'm already, I'm already public enemy number one in the western part of the state. Well, public enemy number two. You're number one, Chris.

I'm number one right now. How about you being heard with all of us now? What's happening? How do we get aggregated so much now? I love it.

Well, look at us and we took nine years to get aggregated every day. Just thank you for calling me an analyst. I appreciate that. Are you really though? I mean, I see things. I analyze them. Okay. And then out they come from my mouth.

What makes me different than anyone else? He's got a point in this space. I mean, Rich, we're a nominated podcast. You know what I mean? That's true. I guess you have opinions like everyone else.

I mean, I got lots of not that phrase. Isn't that that what do you want? What do you want to thought on? What do you want to thought on right quick?

I got it. Give me something. Give me a topic. Give me a topic.

Nick Saban, commissioner, one giant body, 64 team playoffs, 64 team playoffs, 10 game regular seasons. Okay. Okay. Good idea. Thanks. I'm going to go eat my cheeseburger for lunch.

You're welcome. Okay. Good one. Good one. And C double a stinks.

They don't know what they're doing. Oh, but Michigan definitely had something up. I mean, that's the way that that's basically it. That's basically it from him.

Your texts yesterday was funny about that. Welcome back to the rich eyes and show radio network. I'm sitting at the rich eyes and show desk furnished by Granger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Granger has the right product for you. Call click Granger.com or just stop by nothing to talk about with this guy, but you know what we figured let's just have mine anyway.

Oh, wait a minute. There's everything to talk about with him. Tom Pelissero and his usual Friday spot back here in the rich eyes and show what's up, Tommy P. How are you?

I'm still here, rich in the NFL. For how long you've done this, Tom is nothing touches this week, right? This, this week is off the charts, right? You know, I think that, you know, everybody talks about black Monday and, you know, the, the day after the season. Well, we've seen in recent years is there's a lot, you know, there's sometimes one or two that happened during the season. This year, there were three. And then, you know, there's other years where you have this kind of aftershocks that happen and increasingly we've seen these aftershocks.

They're normally not earthquakes though. We are now entering an NFL hiring cycle. We're in the thick of it already in which among the names potentially available to go to new teams, Mike Vrabel, Jim Harbaugh, sorry, Bill Belichick, Pete Carroll.

All right. These are luminaries in the sport. These are big time names, big time coaches, and we'll see where the dust settles with all of these, but you know, in another year we'd be talking about Ben Johnson.

Where's he going to go? That'd be the number one story in this hiring cycle this year. It's Belichick, Carroll, Harbaugh, Vrabel.

This is unusual. It's also an amazing test case because the first year we've got new rules on the cadence of the hiring process as well with in-person interviews with NFL assistants pushed back. So, everybody already was kind of feeling their way through this new process. Now, all of a sudden you plop in a bunch of coaches of this caliber and everybody right now is trying simultaneously to go through the process the way they were planning to do it, but also understanding there's new things literally happening in real time here. And in terms of the cadence that the league has set out to kind of slow the process down, that's where I'll start with you, is why are the Patriots able to hire Gerard Mayo so quickly even though it hasn't been officially announced as you and I are conversing right now, Tom? So, under the Rooney rule, teams are currently required to interview two external minority candidates for any high-level position whether that's a head coach or a general manager. The exceptions to the rule, there's two of them, one is if you make the coaching change after March 1st, that's what we saw a couple of years ago with Todd Bowles taking over for Bruce Arians because realistically at that point you're talking about teams already way down the line and you know saying you're going to bring people in and do a whole process doesn't really make sense.

The other exception to that rule is if you in writing put that somebody is the successor to the job and it doesn't matter if they're black, white, whatever, if you put that in writing that you are the planned successor, you're allowed to step into that job and there have been other examples of this. One of the more recent ones was Eric DaCosta taking over for Ozzie Newsome. If you have it in writing that you're the successor, there's not a Rooney Rule requirement, you don't have to go through a search process, you can simply be elevated and certainly there was a belief that this was in Gerard Mayo's contract going all the way back to about a year ago at this time when the Patriots did something highly unusual for the organization which was send out a press release saying we are working on a contract, not even done, we are working on a contract with Gerard Mayo to keep him with the team for years to come and also we have now brought aboard Bill O'Brien as our new offensive coordinator. The Patriots normally don't announce that the sun came up today, they won't confirm anything publicly like that, the fact that they intentionally put that out there, it signaled a couple of things. One, Gerard Mayo very clearly was the successor to Bill Belichick but secondly it also was evidence of what we've seen is an erosion of power that Bill Belichick had long had within the organization and Robert Kraft, Jonathan Kraft had been increasingly involved in football matters, there were certain things that Bill Belichick has always had in his contract, 53-man roster control, the team can't hire a general manager but in terms of control over individual members of the coaching staff, non-football hires and things like that, those were not technically under Bill Belichick's purview and when you look back at in recent years here why things went the direction that they did in New England, there were a bunch of reasons for that, the number of valuable members of their coaching staff in front office who had left is certainly part of the equation here. Bill Belichick did not have the help that he had had in prior years but also there was certainly a belief from Belichick's side as far as I understand it that he was no longer able to function the way that he had on the way to six Super Bowls, that's part of the reason when they had these conversations here, specifically on Monday and then carried into the next couple of days, things just weren't able to get on the same page for them to move forward.

What do you mean by that? Because I know of those who are listening and might have a little bit of the cynicism and then would be, well yeah, the things that he didn't have to operate the way that he's used to operating there in New England, his name Tom and Brady, but what else? I mean seriously, what else are you referring to that led to this remarkable parting of the ways, Tom? Go down the list of people, Rich, who have gotten jobs out of the Patriots organization and of course everybody makes jokes of okay, it was all Belichick, it's all Brady, these guys come out of that, a lot of people keep hiring out of that tree, but when you lose Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler and Matt Patricia and Bob Quinn and Joe Judge at least for a bit there, Nick Casario goes to Houston, you can go down the rest of the list, Jack Easterby going to Houston who was a key part of the operational thing, all these people who have been a part of this network that Bill had kind of overseen, all of a sudden he didn't have that same level of expertise working with him to put all the various systems and processes in place that Belichick had been used to and again, I know I said some names in that sentence that people are going to roll their eyes at, but you're talking about the difference between those people going and trying to set a similar program someplace else and those people knowing specifically how they function within the Bill Belichick universe.

When you have, and really New England is the only one that's truly like this in the NFL, because yes, Pete Carroll had 53-man roster control, he technically had veto power, he hired John Schneider, but nobody had more authority over every aspect of the football operation than Bill Belichick in New England, which works, yes, it helps when you have the greatest player of all time on your side, they tried to find the next guy in Mac Jones a couple of years ago, there's a bunch of reasons things did not go well, they also gave Mac Jones three different offensive coordinators, because Josh McDaniel, or if you count the two-headed monster from last year, he had Josh McDaniel, then it was Patricia and Judge, then this year it's Bill O'Brien, so you're switching schemes, you're switching systems, again there's this massive brain drain that happened within the organization and when it relies on one person to oversee all of it and suddenly you have less experienced people doing a lot of those jobs, whether it's on the field or off the field, it just leads to some other things falling by the wayside, you saw that reflected in personnel, you saw that reflected at times in terms of what was left of the coaching staff, and you certainly saw it in the win-loss column where there are 4 and 13. So what is Belichick's next maneuver? Where do you think, what do you think he's going to do, Tom? Bill Belichick wants to coach, he did not say that, he did not take questions from reporters, which I understood, Rich, because Bill went out, he made like his five-minute speech to the media and then he could do just the okay, we'll see you later thing as opposed to all right, let's take questions for Bill. Bill, where are you going next?

Yeah, we're here to talk about today. You know how that would have gone, it would have been 10 uncomfortable minutes after that, so Bill wasn't going to address his future, but Robert Kraft made that very clear that hey, it's going to be hard seeing him in a cut-off hoodie coaching someplace else. He wants to coach in 2024, he wants to continue pursuing the all-time wins record, which you know depending if you're late with the regular season one or the total one, it's going to take realistically two or three years to be able to get there. He's going to need to go though, you know talking about the processes and the way that things were set up in New England for so long, where he's able not necessarily to run things exactly the same because again, I don't know that you can set up a program the way that the Patriots did 24 years ago in the modern NFL, but he's going to want to know that the structure of the organization, the resources and his ability to do his job the way that he's done it and the way that he knows how to win is going to be putting him in a position to have success at that next stop.

So you know, we all know some of the names that have been out there in terms of potential landing spots. Atlanta is certainly one, it makes a lot of sense. You got an 81-year-old owner in Arthur Blank who just ran out of patience on what was supposed to be a long-term bill with Arthur Smith. They have gotten a lot better on defense.

They have put talent at the skill spots. They've not yet invested in a quarterback, which regardless who is the coach there is going to be the next step here in 2024. You know, I've heard the Chargers bandied about. I don't really foresee that.

I've heard the Raiders. I don't really foresee that. What about Washington? I mean, you know, Washington, the issue there also is he would go there and he's got a second overall pick. He could get a young stud, you know, to go and coach up and, you know, kind of be the Popovich here, right?

To get his wenbunyama. I don't know if Drake May would be that guy or if Caleb would even drop to him at two or they go get up to number one because the Bears might stick with Justin Fields. You know what I mean? Like, coaching the NFC East, that one with a new owner that's going to put a ton of money into the, you're not worried, you're not wondering about the continuity there and you're not worried about the money there of the ownership structure and resources. That's for sure in D.C. You're probably wondering about the structure of the football operation. If it's Adam Peters who ends up being the head of football operations, which, you know, has been the belief in the league for months that he was going to end up getting that job.

That's somebody who did work in New England. He's got a relationship with Bill Belichick. Everything I've been told is that it's not likely that Bill Belichick is going to end up in Washington just for a variety of different reasons.

The vision for how they want to build that program. You say nothing's impossible, Rich, because we're talking about arguably the greatest coach of all time. Every owner should be looking at this and just going, okay, Bill Belichick's currently available. He's 72 years old, but do we need to think about this?

Do we at least need to have a conversation about this? I think that, you know, while this press conference was going to happen at some point and all parties didn't want it to drag on, I certainly think from Bill Belichick's perspective, one thing he's going to want to do is see how these games go this weekend and see whether or not potentially something else could shake free. You're talking about better teams. If they're in the playoffs, they're probably closer to winning. I don't foresee Bill Belichick taking over a total rebuild operation, which is why I don't anticipate it being Washington. I don't really think it's Carolina.

I think it's got to be a team that's a little bit closer here. You take nothing off the table, but Belichick's going to want to know too, you know, who am I working with? How involved is the owner going to be?

Is there a team president or somebody else high up the food chain that I'm going to be answering to? All these are questions that Belichick is going to interview teams about as much as they are interviewing him for these potential jobs. We'll see exactly what that ends up being, but again, you've got a lot of big names and a lot of moving parts in this entire thing, and there's also some teams that knowing those new restrictions and the fact that you can't do in-person interviews with current NFL assistants until January 22nd, want to at least get a little bit further in this process before they decide to move forward, though all you have to do, Rich, is interview a couple of minority coaches who are not currently employed or college coaches, anyone other than NFL assistants.

You could have fulfilled the Rooney Rule and then pounce on Belichick or Vrabel or one of these other guys right now. Tom Pelissero, my god, we could talk for another half an hour here, but let me try and condense some of this down. My colleague from NFL Network right here on The Rich Eisen Show, I know it feels like 15 years ago, but why did Vrabel and the Titans part ways?

I mean, what happened there, Tom? We talked about it, Rich, on game day morning on Sunday, and my understanding was they were going to speak after the season was over and try to figure out if there was a if or how they could possibly move forward together. There was a lot that was swirling out there in terms of reports about his frustration, people like Michael Lombardi on his podcast saying, oh, I don't think he likes the setup, and of course, there's a New England connection to Lombardi there. There's a lot of noise, him going to New England and saying the things that he did, and some of those other things that just didn't land well, he never addressed it. My understanding was, this is what we wrote and talked about, he never went to ownership or the other Titans brass and said, hey, I got a problem with Rand Carthon or I got a problem with the structure. He never talked about the alignment, and him and Rand Carthon never had blow ups. It wasn't anything like that, but when you have this much noise, Rich, you would think at some point, if somebody writes a story saying Tom Pelissero really doesn't like working with Rich Eisen, I'd probably call you and go, yeah, you know, that's a bunch of BS.

Like, don't worry about that. They never could. They never confronted it publicly or privately, and so it just left everyone going, what is the deal here? When you see those buzzwords that Amy Adams Strunk used in her statement and in her in-house media interview with the voice of the Titans, Mike Keith, she kept talking about collaboration and alignment. It was very clear that while Brable and Rand may have been friendly and they got along well enough, they weren't working together. They were not collaborative.

They wanted a different environment around that team. You've spent time around Brable. I've met Brable. You know, he is a, I don't even know how to describe him. He is a unique individual. He's an excellent, excellent football coach, but also somebody who's going to blow up a lot with things he doesn't like.

He's going to have his way of doing things, and he's going to want to proceed like that. They weren't on the same page. Brable was frustrated with the roster.

He was plainly frustrated with some other things. Amy Adams Strunk did something that you don't see very often, which is flat out firing a really, really good football coach, and we'll see now with Rand Carthon running the operation there in terms of a coaching search, what direction they go. I would bet you this, Rich, as they're going through this and we've seen them request a lot of the hot offensive names. We've also seen them request guys like Aaron Glenn and Antonio Pierce and Dan Quinn, Raheem Morris. Those guys are probably going to be more the types of leaders that you see with D'Amico Ryans in Houston.

They're going to be a little bit more Type A, I don't want to say rah-rah, but along those lines, you're going to have a different type of an energy than you had with Brable. I think that leader of men type, even though Brable would all fit in that category, that's probably the direction that Tennessee is going to be leading. Well, and then Amy Adams Strunk mentioned how there was a possibility of there being a trade for Brable, but that would process too long to potentially go and get someone for Brable, and then hours later, literally the next day, Pete Carroll doesn't survive him competing for staying the coach in Seattle, to use his language. He's out, and I'm wondering if Dan Quinn's the through line here, because if Quinn is in play, he was last year, but the Titans had Brable and they were definitely keeping with Pete Carroll in Seattle last year. I'm just wondering, is there any connective tissue here as to why suddenly Pete was out? What happened there, Tom?

It's not a direct line. It's not as simple as Pete's out, Dan's in. I would certainly anticipate, knowing the relationship, John Schneider is going to want to interview Dan Quinn. A lot of people want to interview Dan Quinn, and I think that he's a real candidate in a place like Tennessee.

He's a real candidate in Washington. He's got slips from Carolina and the Chargers. There's a bunch of places where Dan Quinn is going to be in the mix. Now, I would also say Seattle, for 14 years under Pete Carroll, established a pretty cool culture in terms of just the way that they have this competitive energy, this positivity, the way that they do things. Maybe you're looking for something a little bit different in this regard, just in terms of how you hold people accountable, the style of football you play. We all know Pete wanted to play, avoid turnovers, play really good defense, and then we'll cut it loose in the fourth quarter if we have to.

Maybe you shift away from that a little bit, but you're not going to see this massive swing away culturally, I don't believe, in Seattle. That doesn't mean that you have to get somebody who's been there before because Dan Quinn would be the front-line guy in that, but I know this, John Schneider, when you have a 72-year-old head coach, you're always kind of evaluating, having a list ready, if at some point Pete wanted to walk away or the Seahawks, in this case, wanted to move on. I would anticipate he's going to interview all the hot names. They haven't put out their interview slips yet, which, by the way, and I learned this, Rich, through the course of this wild past week here, there's a process, actually, even before you put the slips out in terms of writing the job description now, the league has to approve it, then they have to post the job, not on Monster.com, but they have to post it internally.

There's a whole bunch of rules there, so until they approve the language and it's posted, you can't even put out the slips, so that's where you've got some of these delays that have happened in recent days. It's not that the Seahawks are ill-prepared for the moment. They'll be ready to go here, and for Pete Carroll, I would say this, Rich, it reminded me of 2008, March 6, 2008, when Brett Favre retired for the first time, and Brett was tearful, and I was at that press conference at Lambeau Field, which shows how long I've been doing this stuff, and he said, I know I can still play, but I don't think I want to. Pete Carroll goes to the podium on, I think it was Tuesday, I've lost track of days, and says, I competed hard. I'm happy. I'm happy for the organization. I'm going to be here for you.

Johnny Schneider, you're my guy. It's been 14 years. You really get to do this thing now, but hey, I'm ready to go, and I'm fired up for what's next. To me, that was Pete walking a very fine line.

I thought it was the classiest, most genuine goodbye from a really classy, genuine individual, but I did not read that as a goodbye for Pete Carroll to coach it, and if the right job is there, in a place that he wants to be, with a team he thinks has an opportunity to win right now, I would not be shocked at all, Rich, if we see Pete Carroll on an NFL sideline again. Oh, gosh. I mean, this is insane, and then let's get to Harbaugh.

What's the latest here? I know what- I thought you were going to run out the clock on this. No, I'm not running out of clock.

I'm having you as long as you're willing to sit there, Tom. I mean, we've barely scratched the surface here. This is the most insane... That's what I said. The coaching carousel is drunk.

It is spun off its axis, and you look out your front window of your house, you're watching it roll down the street, because this isn't- This is water. I'm not drunk. So, what's the latest with Jim Harbaugh, Tom? Jim Harbaugh is celebrating, as I'm sure you are, still too rich. I am.

Been on cloud nine for about four days here. Jim Harbaugh during, you know, he got that big chunk of time right between the Big Ten title game and the college football playoff. He was definitely, you know, making calls. He was updating staff lists. He was evaluating potential openings.

He has continued, from my understanding, to do that through the course of this week. It is certainly in play that Jim Harbaugh could end up in the NFL. We talked about this, I remember, on the show last week. I brought up two teams, the Raiders and the Chargers. I would still bring up those two teams. It certainly seems, just based upon how the processes have gone so far, that the Chargers at this point probably seem like they're more in play for Jim Harbaugh, but when you're talking about a coach of this caliber, I don't think that you take anybody off the table until they ultimately go in a different direction. I think that the other thing to remember with Jim Harbaugh was, you know, the last couple of years, things played out rather publicly. You know, two years ago, he interviews twice with the Vikings, including in person for like six hours on National Signing Day, and then, you know, through the course of that day, the Vikings realized, you know what, this is just, this is not a fit. Harbaugh gets on the plane, he tells Michigan I'm coming back. They hired Kevin O'Connell that night. Last year with Denver, he did the initial zoom, and then they were like, hey, we want to bring you in for in person, and Jim was just thinking like, why do I have to go and do that?

So, the Panthers ended up flying to go see him a week later. The point is, I think this time around, if Jim Harbaugh is going to get a job, to the extent that they can, they're going to keep it as quiet as possible for as long as possible, right up and to the point that Jim Harbaugh is flying there, and if all goes well, he becomes the head coach of the football team. We know that Michigan fans, and I'm sure the administration, are exhausted by this annual exercise. We know that they've had a large, a couple of large contract offers on the table for Jim Harbaugh to keep him at Michigan for the long haul. You know, Jim is always driven by that next mountain to climb.

He climbed a really big one, winning a national championship, but one left out there for him is the Super Bowl. You know, he also lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I believe his parents have like the house behind him, like the backyards are connected.

He sees them all the time. Is he going to move to LA right now as alluring as it is when it comes right down to it? Is he going to do it? You know, that's really the, you know, the question here, and we'll see here over the next, you know, week or two, exactly what direction that goes. Well, we're resting easily while we're exhausted.

You know what I'm saying? Like, where this is the previous years is like, yeah, what if he leaves? We haven't done it yet.

Everyone's resting easy and celebrating it. I've got two more for you, Tom, because you mentioned this is unprecedented. Bill Belichick is available.

I mean, that is not a misprint, right? You mentioned Pete Carroll would be available for the right job. Mike Vrabel, two years removed, two seasons removed from being coach of the year is available. Jim Harbaugh is available. Bears fans are freaking out that they stayed put with Matt Eberflus with all due respect to the coach. So why did they do that? And how does it inform you on their plans for Justin Fields about what they did?

Tom. The Bears had lengthy intensive meetings for a couple of days after the season. Matt Eberflus was a part of those meetings. They had to figure out, you know, what the best path forward was for the organization. So they looked at everything. Kevin Warren, the new team president, was part of that.

He is very methodical, wants to talk about every different scenario. You know, based upon the improvement that they showed over the second half of the season, especially on defense, they just kind of came to the conclusion that this is going to be the best direction to go. Now, the Bears offense wasn't terrible, by the way. They were second in the league in rushing, even though they played with an undrafted rookie quarterback from division two, Tyson Bajan, for a good chunk of the year. It's not like it was just Justin Fields running wild on everybody.

They were top 10 most of the season, third downs in red zone. This certainly, Rich, I would say points to them going a different direction at the quarterback position at a time that they're sitting there with the number one pick and the opportunity to go draft somebody that can quickly make Bears fans feel okay if you're moving on from the dynamic abilities but inconsistent play of Justin Fields. I know Ryan Polis left the door open on that possibility when he spoke to reporters. It certainly seems like, you know, things are pointing that direction.

They're going to continue to go through the process. You know, Caleb Williams hasn't even declared yet for the draft and our expectation is that he will. Drake May has declared. That's Monday, right, Tom? You got to do that by Monday, correct? Is that the date by which you must declare?

Don't hold me to the date because I got a lot of dates in my head right now, Rich, but yes, it's upcoming. The early declared deadline was to make you eligible for all-star games, which Caleb Williams was never going to do. We'll see if we see him at the combine or anything else through the course of this process, but yes, you have to declare later on this month for the NFL draft.

We'll have that answer pretty quickly here and then it's going to be a matter of, okay, if it is a Caleb Williams, how do we put the right offensive coordinator with him to maximize his talents and make him feel good about coming to Chicago? It is Monday, by the way, January 15th. You got to make that announcement and obviously all of us Michigan folk are looking to see if JJ McCarthy is going to make that announcement as well.

Maybe Saturday's the day, you know, with the parade being planned over the weekend in Ann Arbor, keeping an eye on that. So here's the last one for you. You made reference before that maybe Belichick is going to wait around to see the results of this weekend's super wild card weekend contests and there's been one surprise after another and that would be one last one for sure. Can you crystal ball or give me your two cents however you're comfortable as to which teams might actually have a result on super wild card weekend that would make them join the group, larger group of teams looking for a new head coach?

Tom, give me that one. I would say this. I think we all know, Rich, which teams we feel like are far enough in with their current administrations or have had sufficient frustration throughout the course of the season that if they wash out in the first round of the playoffs something is going to have to change. In places like Buffalo, that's, you know, pretty easy to see what potentially could change. You know, they already fired their offensive coordinator this year. They don't have a defensive coordinator.

You can make, you know, a lot of changes in that regard. We know that there's intense scrutiny right now on the Eagles. They've already made a change in terms of who's calling the plays on defense. They quite possibly could be a change and already has been collaboration in terms of who's calling the plays on offense. There's always going to be focused on the Dallas Cowboys despite the fact that Mike McCarthy has to be sitting there going, what more do I have to do besides obviously winning playoff games?

He's the first Cowboys coach ever to win 12 games in three consecutive seasons. He took over as the play caller and they've gotten so much better on that side of the ball. He's put them in that position.

But Rich, when it comes down to it, these are the biggest moments. These are the moments that can turn franchise's fortunes and one bad bounce and you lose a bad game or you just have a bad day at the office and things get away from you. Real quickly, feelings can change and so it'll be a fascinating three days of football coming up and we'll see where we are Sunday, Monday, Tuesday morning. And then the cherry on top of all that, for the lack of a better phrase, is that there's never been this experienced and big name coaches all in one available pot for teams to go dip into and hire. Belichick's available. Harbaugh's available.

Vrabel's available. Pete Carroll is available. That is nuts, Tom. And I appreciate you going soup to nuts right here on the show, as always. Thanks Rich.

You bet. That's the great Tom Pelissera right here on the Rich Eisen Show. And there he goes.

We could have kept going on. Really an insane amount of news. And then during all of that latest news in the college football world as to who's not going to be the next coach at Alabama. How about Alabama needing to take a few swings at this, it seems.

That's next. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Chris Maddox is already in our green room for hour two. I cannot believe you watched Charles Oakley get dragged out of Madison Square Garden with your own two eyes. I mean, I could not. Spike Lee was there. You couldn't believe it.

And everyone just like it during the time. Spike Lee was there. That's the next thing you're gonna tell me. Jack Nicholson was at the Lakers game. McEnroe was there. I know he was right there. He was like practically in Oakley's lap. Was Woody Allen there? He was not.

I don't know why that's funny. John Lithgow. Was John there? Steve Earle was there. So Steve Earle.

This is the new Madison Square Garden. Leon was there. The actor. Oh, sure. What about Bob Costas?

Costas. Can you tell this story? You got to tell the tell the story. When I was like 21 years old, I went to the I went to the what was it? The Heisman Trophy at the Downtown Athletic Club.

I managed to get invited. Like I had an extra ticket or somebody gave me a ticket. And I went to the thing and I went to the bathroom. And Bob Costas was in the next urinal. And I was like 21.

So this was nineteen ninety ninety one. And I said when I was peeing and I went to say I'm a big fan of yours. And he told and he went, don't you know the rule? You're not supposed to talk when you're in the urinal. And I was like, oh, I didn't.

That's how I learned the rule. Anyway, so I'm in the next game and I was I never met him before since then. And I said to him, hey, this Bobby Cannavale, I just want to introduce myself and say when I was 21, I told him the story and he went, it doesn't sound like something I'd say. He shot me down.

Just complete shoot down twice. Well, he was also sitting on the toilet when you told the second. He was he was he was he was. Yeah. So shut the door. I don't care if you have two Emmys.

Shut the door, Chip. Check out all the NFL super wild card weekend action on Westwood One for free and stream it. Sponsored by AutoZone all season long. Hopefully you've been listening to every Westwood One broadcast and the NFL live on the NFL app. You can do that this weekend. You can also do it by asking Alexa to open Westwood One Sports or on your Westwood One affiliate stations, digital platforms. Get in the zone with AutoZone.

The free AutoZone fix finder service can help you find a fix for free. Get in the zone. AutoZone restrictions apply. What's crazier?

Oh, I like these. It's not what's more likely. Not yet.

What's crazier? Nick Saban retiring at age 72 without a bunch of fanfare, right? Without a Coach K type farewell season, right? Or Alabama seemingly having some issues filling the job.

That's kind of funny. Because so far Saban's retirement has enriched the Lanning family, seemingly the Sarkeesian family, and now the Norvells. Hang in with the Norvells. And you would have thought, hey, Mike Norvell is going to leave Florida State before Florida State leaves the ACC for the SEC. Pete Famil, one of the many out there saying he's staying Norvell at Florida State, eight years, 10 million per.

Even after what happened. So what's crazier? Saban retired. Anybody want to take a shot at that? Because I'll tell you, my answer is that Alabama is having an issue finding someone who doesn't want to leave their schools to go to Alabama.

What, you don't want to be the guy after the guy? Is that what it is or what? Because Alabama's got as much money in NIL, right?

Or maybe I'm wrong. I don't know. The facilities look pretty damn nice. I'd like to stay there.

That's better than most bed and breakfasts in Tuscaloosa, I bet. Nobody's thrown this name out. And I'm kind of surprised. What about Bill O'Brien? Is Lane Kiffin too? Lane Kiffin set Twitter on fire. He took a shot last night.

He tweeted out a photograph of the local airport sign as he's like he was there at the Oxford airport. He's the king of the trolls. I don't know, man. It's pretty funny. What about Pete Carroll going back to college? Man, now that would be something. What about that?

What's the gum situation in Tuscaloosa? I don't know. How about Bill? What a name image and likeness with Belichick? Now I'm being totally facetious. But you're not answering. You agree with me? That they don't have somebody, like there was no coach in waiting. I'm a little surprised.

Because if Harbaugh leaves, we're all in Michigan country, whatever you want to call it, Wolverine nation. We're all assuming it's Sharone Moore. There you go. Well, he's had a lot of practice.

I know that. Yeah, I'm a little surprised. There's no coach in waiting. Just like, you know, Saban's leaving now so this guy could get it. They really need to wrap this up because they're in danger of losing guys in the portal. They already lost one five-star wide receiver. They're kind of in danger of slipping a little bit.

I don't think that's an overreaction. I put it out as a poll. Rich Eisen Show. Hit us up.

What do you think? Who wants to be Alabama's next head coach? Again, I'm available. I don't think you're a candidate. You're not a candidate. You're not a candidate.

Why not? He's an analyst and an actor. An analyst and an actor. Thank you, T.J. It's not a stretch to start calling him coach. By the way, T.J., you're the OC. He does not have the comportment for the job. Who the hell is Tim Horton?

Chris, give me that job that McConaughey has for Texas. Oh, you're the minister of... The minister of vibes or whatever?

Culture? Yeah, the minister of culture. Well, you're the minister of culture of the Rich Eisen Show already.

I used to be the minister of propaganda and now I'm the minister of... Well done. Chris Mannix is Sports Illustrated, the latest on everything in the association. He just watched the Lakers get curb stomped last night. So did you back on the Rich Eisen Show. Rough NBA night last night.

Well, not for my fantasy team. Well, so Chris, I'll give you the real estate here. I'll hand it off to you. You want credit for what? You're not getting enough credit for something? I brought it up to him earlier.

I think that you need to prop me up a little bit more for some of my great takes. It's a mean thing. I'm just saying, I'm just saying like what? Last year when I was saying this about Bill, you called me crazy.

Which is what? That it's time for him to go. It's time for a change. You said I was insane. You did say that. And then the beginning of this year, you said I was insane.

And then now that it's happened, you're just like, time for a change. Well, because I saw, I guess what you saw in advance. Is that good enough? Oh, Chris, boy, you really see so many great things. Thanks. That wasn't so hard, was it? Yes, it was.

A little part of me just died. I don't know if you could see that on your 4K on the Roku channel. Shouldn't you be hyping the analyst up so you can get on your level?

I need to get aggregated more. Hey, listen, I did not think that... Well, obviously Kraft saw something in Mayo to say, Gerard, we're going to put it in writing that you're the next HC here. But I don't know what that meant. He could have just written on a cocktail napkin, Ira Zahn is the HC of the NEP. But didn't we think that... The way that Belichick had it in his contract that he was the next coach of the Jets. Well, remember a few years ago when McDaniels and them had a powwow? We thought he was the coach-in-waiting. That's true.

Well, we know one thing, there's not one in Alabama. How wrestling really works and how you get the ratings. Eric Bischoff and Conrad Thompson explain on 83 weeks. I mean, I dig Jey Uso because he's born out of great storytelling and he lived up to the opportunity and exceeded it. The LA Knight, he's way up on my list because here's a guy that's been around for almost ever, should have probably quit a half a dozen times, and he just forced his way into their life. And now he's making money hand over fist. That is a story I love. 83 weeks on YouTube or wherever you listen.